In the past, various types of coatings have been applied to substrates to provide protection for the substrate. For example, a layer of material may be applied which forms the exterior layer over a substrate for improving a property or properties such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, lubricity, hardness, oxidation resistance, ductility, strength and elasticity. Unfortunately, these properties or many of them are mutually exclusive for a given material. Thus, a single material or composition may possess good hardness but may not have lubricity or some other property that is needed or desired. For example, a coating of aluminum oxide is very inert and hard, but lacks lubricity, a desirable property for the machining of parts. Similarly, lubricious materials such as germanium and fluorocarbons, may not possess sufficient hardness or wear resistance, for example. The resulting coating then is often a compromise which results in optimizing one or more properties but compromises the others.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a coating and method which exhibits one or more properties, such as hardness, wear resistance, lubricity, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, ductility, strength and elasticity such that the exhibited properties are a combination of the properties of the individual constituents thereof.